SHENZHEN, CHINA--A large-scale installation co-created by Daniel Allende '10, a MICA interdisciplinary sculpture senior, is featured in the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture in China, Dec. 6-Jan. 23. Allende, along with the collaborative team, Franceschini + Allende/Futurefarmers, recently traveled to China to work with master craftsmen to produce the public-participation work, People's Roulette, commissioned by the Shenzhen Biennale.

Allende started out as an intern with San Francisco-based Futurefarmers and the group's founder, Amy Franceschini, and is now an official member of the team of artists and designers "with a common interest in creating work that challenges current social, political and economic systems," according to the group's Web site.

People's Roulette is an interactive installation that represents the process of urbanization. The Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture catalogue describes the installation, a rotating octagon-shaped platform, as "part carnival-ride and part performance piece, personifying the endless movements of ‘the masses' between center and periphery under a paradigm in which such distinctions have grown increasingly diffuse." The installation is on Shenzenwan Avenue in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen.

For more on the Shenzhen Biennale show, click here.

Founded in 1826, MICA is among the top visual arts colleges in the nation. It enrolls 1,714 undergraduate and 218 graduate students from 48 states and 52 foreign countries, offering programs of study leading to the bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.), master of arts (M.A.), and master of fine arts (M.F.A.) degrees. It also offers post-baccalaureate certificate programs and a full slate of credit and noncredit courses for adults, college-bound students, and children. MICA is recognized as an important cultural resource for the Baltimore/Washington region, sponsoring many public and community-outreach programs-including more than 100 exhibitions by students, faculty, and nationally and internationally known artists annually-as well as artists' residencies, film series, lectures, readings, and performances.